FO says Pakistan remains immune to Islamic State

— Zakria asks world community to take notice of India’s surgical strike threats

—Says RAW-Taliban nexus behind terrorism in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakria on Thursday once again rejected any organised presence of the DAESH ( an acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) in Pakistan.

During the weekly media briefing here at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he said that there was no organised footprint of the DAESH and Pakistan would take all necessary measures to mitigate the threat emanating from presence of the international militia in Afghanistan.

About the recent threatening statement by the Indian Army chief for carrying out ‘surgical strikes’ in Pakistan, Zakria urged the international community to take notice of these threats. He said that the Indian side has been lying about the issue of the ‘surgical strikes’ in Azad Jammu Kashmir for a long time.

During his address to the UN General Assembly, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to protecting its sovereignty and integrity, he pointed out. He termed the Indian propaganda of the ‘surgical strikes’ as claim and a proven lie as it has time and again failed to come up with substantial evidence over the past one year.

“We have seen India hyping up propaganda of ‘surgical strikes’ – an absurd claim and a proven lie, which the Indian Army propagated last year on September 29,” he said and recalled that the Pakistan Army had taken international media to the areas mentioned by India (for ‘surgical strikes’), to prove that there was no truth in the Indian claims.

“Noteworthy to mention is that international media reports supported the Pakistani rebuttal after visiting those areas and meeting the people there. Such irresponsible statements reflect the Indian hegemonic designs and are fraught with incalculable dangers in an already volatile strategic environment,” he said.

Asked about the photograph controversy by Ambassador Maliha Lodhi at the UN, Zakria said that India cannot distract the world attention from the human rights violations its army was committing in the Indian-held Kashmir by raising the issue of a photograph gaffe.

“About photograph (gaffe), India cannot hide the crimes against humanity its occupation forces in the disputed state are committing. Let me quote what appeared in the international print media and in the reports of Human Rights organisations with reference to Indian use of pellet guns in Kashmir,” he added.

He said that the Amnesty International published an exclusive 112-page report – “Losing sight in Kashmir: The impact of pellet-firing shot guns” – containing pictures of pellet-guns victims with their emotions recorded. “In its edition of Nov 8, 2016, The Guardian newspaper said that there was no recorded instance of a modern democracy systematically and willfully shooting at people to blind them.

With reference to the use of the pellet guns by the Indian forces on peaceful Kashmiri protesters, The New York Times newspaper published an article – ‘An Epidemic of Dead Eyes in Kashmir as India Uses Pellet Guns on protesters.’ While citing heart-rending scenes of the pellet gun victims, as young as 8 years old, the daily in its article concluded that ‘2016 will almost certainly be remembered as the year of dead eyes.

He said that India cannot deny around 80 Kashmiris completely blinded deliberately by its forces. “India cannot deny blinding of over 200 innocent Kashmiris in one eye. India cannot deny deliberately killing innocent civilians while committing unprovoked ceasefire violations in AJK and in the vicinity of the working boundary. India cannot deny thousands of forced disappearances,” he added.

Zakria said that if India denies any of the mentioned crimes, then it should not be afraid of allowing fact finding missions demanded by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, OIC Contact Group on Kashmir, IPHRC, some of the Western countries’ lawmakers and Kashmiris. According to an investigative report of the Greater Kashmir newspaper, the victims of the pellet guns are also losing their memory.

“Use of pellet guns by Indian forces against the Kashmiris including children, young girls and women is an indisputable fact,” Zakria observed. Responding to a question whether India reported LoC infiltration by Pakistan at a time when US Secretary Gen Mattis is on visit as a propaganda tool, he said that India used this tool in past too.

“You are referring to Chattisingpura killing of 37 innocent Sikhs by Indian forces in March 2000, which they blamed on some ‘non-state’ actors. It was later revealed that Indian state actors had carried out the killing at a time when then US president Bill Clinton was on a visit to India.”

He said lately, a video has also emerged of a mid-ranking Indian Army officer admitting that the Indian Army had carried out the massacre of Sikhs in 2000. Indian design was to malign Pakistan, instigate Sikhs against Kashmiris and Pakistan and project the indigenous self-determination movement of Kashmiris as terrorism, he said.

“President Clinton had then reflected on the Indian cruel and inhuman act in his introduction of Madeleine Albright’s book ‘The Mighty & the Almighty.’ Indian history is replete with such heinous crimes and false-flag operations,” he said, adding that India over the years has played the role of spoiler in Afghanistan.

“Under the garb of development assistance, India has used Afghan soil to carry out subversive activities inside Pakistan. India’s spy agency has developed a clandestine nexus with terrorist groups based in Afghanistan. These groups are being used to foment unrest and orchestrate terrorist attacks in Pakistan and other regional countries,” he said.

“We have evidence to this effect, which was shared with the US, the UN secretary-general and also with the Afghan authorities,” he asserted. The spokesperson said that the Indian-sponsored terrorist groups in Afghanistan and their directed terrorist activities inside Pakistan remain no secret.

“You must have seen The Hindustan Times newspaper’s opinion piece a few days back where it was argued that despite pressure from the US, India won’t sever its ties with the Taliban, Jamaatul Ahrar and other terrorist groups in Afghanistan, which the RAW uses to carry out terrorist attacks in Pakistan,” he said.